The Social Medicine of Old Age: Report of an Inquiry in Wolverhampton

Abstract

Dr. Sheldon puts it. For this reason it is deplorable that, in common with other recent investigators, he has not found it possible to emancipate himself from the use of the term "normal." It is absurd that in a survey which represents a beginning towards an effort to find the normal standards of ageing, individuals should straightway be divided into normal, super-normal, and sub-normal for their age. The plea that this was done on common-sense grounds seems rather strange. Altogether such few conclusions and speculations as there are in this book are inclined to be expressions of what is commonly known as common sense. Our old friend " wear and tear " is also met with in the pages of this book. If authors dealing with old age would begin to pay tribute to their own ignorance by foregoing the use of such biologically meaningless metaphors they Wvould help to clear the path for the acquisition of some real knowledge. Such criticism, however, concerns only the analytic parts of this book, the main part of which is devoted to an orderly account of the facts which emerged from an investigation extending over two years, in the course of which the social pattern of the lives of a 1: 30 random sample of the old people of Wolverhampton and the functioning of their minds and bodies were scrutinizedand studied with the help of a detailed questionnaire. The medical part of the investigation had to be restricted to the taking of histories, but the limitations arising from this and other difficulties are clearly realized by the author, who has made allowance for them in presenting his results. The scope of the survey is very wide indeed. After giving an account of the physical state of the subjects concerned and of the main physical symptoms complained of by them, the author goes on to deal in a similar manner with their mental state, the social structure of their homes, and the problems arising from illness in these old people. The author explodes some popular misconceptions and applies the corrective of exact recording to many vaguely held notions on the subject of old age. The main impression which he manages to convey is that old people are on the whole less handicapped than our clinical experience would tend to make us think. This book, packed with facts set down by a competent and sympathetic observer, should be read by gerontologists, social workers, and administrative planners alike. Theirs is the task of filling in the details, and they will be better fitted to do so after having studied this outline of the complete physical and social status of a typical sample of old people. F. A. E. CREw.